About

With a soul forged by the tender kiss between the white and blue niles, I am a child of the great nile who inhales Afrika, and exhales humanity.

I am a 23 year old (or young), depending on your perspective of the glass, of Sudanese heritage (both the Sudans), born and raised in Kenya, and currently based in the U.K. I am somewhere in between a legal scholar, struggling writer, and spoken word artist/storyteller. I speak Dinka, Swahili, Arabic and English. Unfortunately, I can only write fluenty in the latter, something I hope to change in the near future (mental enslavement #WhyIsMyCurriculumSoWhite?).

I am fascinated by words. By their ability to make the ugliest of things beautiful, and the most beautiful of things ugly. Though I have a legal background, with a Master of Laws in International Commercial Law from the University of Surrey, my love for writing comes second only to my love for Afrika.

My blog is an expression of myself and the values/things I believe in. Just as humans are not one dimensional beings, my blog is not one dimensional; I could move from talking about the Afrikan position in the WTO, to a fictional story on imperialism in Afrika, to a poem on Islamophobia, to talking about Justin Beiber (I was a Beleiber until I found out Ed Sheeran co-wrote Love Yourself. My heart was severed after having gassed Beiber for it! But you know what they say about love and moving on: it is not easy and I am not quite ready to let him love himself, yet). Long story short, I write about anything I feel is worth penning on.

This blog exists as an extended form of ownership of my narrative, first, and foremost, as Sanna Arman, a human being, then as an ardent Afrikan, and thereafter a black woman in a patriarchal, white world. I am here to define myself, in all of my complexities, not for you to shrink and fit into miniature boxes of who you think I am.

My writing style, I like to think is simple yet well-thought out and engaging, with the aim of making my work accessible to a diverse readership. I try to present both simple and convoluted subjects in the simplest fashion possible, creatively, without losing the essence of said subjects, in order to offer a painless reading experience.

My pen dances to the beat of question marks without a bass-line of political correctness. I cannot promise not to offend. Some of the things I write about may make you uncomfortable, at times piss you off, or make you dislike me. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I am quite okay with that – 7 billion plus people after all, it is impossible for me to fit all shoe sizes.

However, it is worth noting that I am here to build bridges and deconstruct destructive ones, not burn good ones. Thus, I am always happy to have my views challenged, engage in intellectual discourse and learn from you, so long as that is done respectfully. Anything short of an amicable exchange, shall not receive a response.

Actually, scratch that. I fully exercise my right to respond, especially on extremely laid back days when I do not have much to do. On such days, I take pleasure in calling out pricks. Simply because I believe assholery, pardon my french, should be confronted, and its wings clipped, not allowed to flourish on to the next target.

I should probably tell you at this point though, that should you decide to come at me in a childish, petty or disrespectful manner, you have one shot; ‘one shot one kill’ lol, make it count. Should your aim and pistol grip fail you, I will dissect every bit of you, marinate it in mud, bake it under the unforgiving Afrikan sun and feed it to the lions in my back yard, from my hut.

Ok no really, it is not that deep, all of that just sounded good in my head. Point being, I am a polite person, but far from meek. When it comes to disrespect, I have this superpower that can be best summarised in the words of Winston Churchill, “tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip”.

Other than that, I like to think I am fairly cool peoples who seeks truth, and to that effect, be truthful, over being right. Consequently, I look forward to engaging in meaningful discussions with you and having my viewpoints questioned/challenged because everything I write is MY truth, not necessarily THE truth. Feel free to suggest topics and point me to cool stuff in the comments sections, or email/inbox/dm me if you are like minded and would like to network/exchange thoughts in a less public space.

Side note: I post short thoughts, prose and poetry regularly on my Instagram page so if you are keen on that, follow me @sannaarman. The links to all of my other social media pages can be found on the header of my ‘home’ page.

With all that said, all the voices in my head welcome you to our multi-verse, and look forward to e-meeting you. I promise you the next line shall be my last one. Congratulations to us both; you for making it to the end of this lengthy rumbling and me, for finally negotiating a successful ‘termination of writing with immediate effect’ contract with my virtual pen.

Gaadddaammmiiitttt! My pen added an exclusion clause to the contract in fine print that stipulates we can only cut ties here after I give you the legal notice below:

LEGAL NOTICE: Re-publishing of any blog entries with the ending note ‘first published on Face2Face Africa‘ will result in copyright infringement, unless otherwise expressly agreed upon and permitted by Face2Face Africa. All other blog entries may be re-published or printed, with permission.